Abstract

This dissertation is an analysis of the concept of divine Person. It is discussed both in its historical development, and in the twentieth century theologies of Karl Barth and Jurgen Moltmann. This historic overview is structured towards a coherent systematic theological overview. The first part is a broad historical analysis of the establishment of the doctrine of the Trinity. It considers the doctrinal development of the concept of divine Person from the unsystematic trinitarian belief of the Early Church through the tightly reasoned theology of Thomas Aquinas. In the second part, the theologies of Karl Barth and Jurgen Moltmann are considered from the viewpoint of their concepts of divine Persons. The problem for both of these theologians is how to relate the modern understanding of 'person' with the Church's concept of divine Person in the doctrine of the Trinity. The modern sense of 'person' includes the concepts of freedom of personal action, self-sufficiency, and self-consciousness. Barth discusses his formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity in relationship with the Church's historical development. He thinks, however, that the movement in the meaning of 'person' requires a restatement of the doctrine in the form that it is the Trinity itself that is free and self-sufficient. Therefore, God is to be considered a Person, and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are modes of being. Unlike Barth, Moltmann understands that each divine Person is able to be considered a person in the modern sense of the word. He conducts the discussion within a critique of the historical development of both the doctrine of God and that of the Trinity. His theology proceeds from an analysis of the changing personal relationships revealed in history. The final part is a reflective summary. It concludes with the idea that in order to say what is needed to be said concerning God's triunity, his simultaneous oneness and threeness, the personal distinctions are sufficiently great for actions to be appropriated to the individual divine Persons, but not that discrete that it must be merely the relationship between the Persons that constitutes God's unity